Open Burning Limits Rejected For The Second Time By Board

For the second time in less than a month, Palm Beach County commissioners on Tuesday rejected a proposal to limit open burning of yard debris in the unincorporated areas of the county.

Three weeks ago, commissioners told Fire-Rescue Director Herman Brice to develop guidelines that would permit residents to burn debris, yet comply with a new state law prohibiting open burning in areas where there is mandatory trash collection.

On Tuesday, Assistant County Attorney Tom McEaddy said the county could comply by permitting burning of materials too large to be picked up by collectors -- limbs larger than 4 inches in diameter and more than 4 feet long or anything heavier than 45 pounds.

That would put all permits for burning in compliance with the county`s land- clearing rules, which still permit open burning, McEaddy said.

Health Department Air Quality Specialist Gene Sacco, who issues permits for burning for land clearing, said smaller items would qualify for mandatory pickup and should not be burned.

Most of the calls his office receives on open burning are not for permits, Sacco said, but complaints about smoke.

Brice told commissioners that the proposed rules would have eliminated about 3,800 of the 4,000 permits for open burning issued to residents in unincorporated areas last year by his department.

Commission Chairman Ken Adams, however, said even the interpretation by the county`s legal staff didn`t satisfy his feeling that residents, particularly those with large pieces of property, would be penalized if they were not permitted to burn yard debris.

``We are losing sight of the fact that 80 percent of the county is not urban,`` Adams said.

The answer, said Commissioner Ken Spillias, may be to establish separate sets of rules for burning.

``There are rural areas where strict interpretation (of the state law) would not be appropriate,`` Spillias said, ``but in urban areas it would be.``